The present invention comprises a new Pelargonium, botanically known as Pelargonium L'Hérit. Ex Aiton, and hereinafter referred to by the variety name ‘PEQZ0003’.
‘PEQZ0003’ is a product of a planned breeding program. The new cultivar ‘PEQZ0003’ has bright red-purple colored inflorescences held above the medium-green foliage, very heat and drought tolerant with continuous color through the most extreme summer heat, and exceptional edema tolerance on a well-branched plant habit.
‘PEQZ0003’ originates from a hybridization in a controlled breeding program made in February 2007, in a greenhouse in Gilroy, Calif. The female parent of ‘PEQZ0003’ was an unpatented, proprietary plant of inter-specific origin, derived from crosses between Pelargonium×hortorum, Pelargonium peltatum and Pelargonium tongaense lines, and identified as ‘10521-1’ with a lighter rose color florets and a smaller more open plant habit when compared to ‘PEQZ0003’.
The male parent of ‘PEQZ0003’ was an unpatented, proprietary plant of inter-specific parentage, derived from crosses between Pelargonium×hortorum, Pelargonium peltatum and Pelargonium tongaense lines, and identified as ‘10520-1’ with more blue-rose colored florets and a more open plant habit when compared to ‘PEQZ0003’. The resultant seed was sown in August 2007.
‘PEQZ0003’ was selected as one flowering plant within the progeny of the stated cross in December 2007 in a greenhouse in Gilroy, Calif.
The first act of asexual reproduction of ‘PEQZ0003’ was accomplished when vegetative cuttings were propagated from the initial selection in the December 2007 in a greenhouse in Gilroy, Calif.